Maximising Australian Defence Force personnel capabilities

Defence Science and Technology (DST) Group has partnered with Engineers Australia to present a lecture focused on minimising challenges faced by defence forces in military operations.

The lecture, “Human Engineering: Maximising Australian Defence Force Personnel Performance in Austere Environments”, will be held in Canberra, Adelaide and Melbourne in June and July 2017.

DST Group said because the human is not a highly engineered platform that responds uniformly across the fleet, when working in the heat it is a balance between managing the health risk and the military capability.

"Working warfighters too hard can result in exhaustion and heat stroke, whereas stopping personnel prematurely can limit the utility of training and operational outcomes," DST Group said.

"There is gross variability between humans, which presents a serious challenge to managing the health risk while maintaining military capability.

"Measurement of the environmental heat stress is essential to inform heat injury management procedures. Measuring the environmental heat stress in military operations can be challenging.

"DST have partnered with industry to minimise these challenges and enable a greater ability to measure environmental heat stress."

DST Group stresses that selection of the right human platform to safely and effectively perform their occupational tasks is fundamental to minimise injuries and maximise Defence capability. DST has been instrumental in developing Physical Employment Standards for the ADF.

Dr Mark Patterson, group leader physical ergonomics, land division, DST Group, will be speaking at all three lectures.

Dr Patterson commenced work for DST Group in 2001, primarily working in the area of human physical performance, particularly related to heat injuries and maximising work performance.